Irish citizens on the Government's first chartered flight from the Middle East have expressed their relief at having arrived back in Ireland.

Follow live updates as the conflict in the Middle East enters its ninth day.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards has said that the country's forces could fight an intense war for six months against the United States and Israel - which said it struck Tehran's commanders at a seaside hotel in the heart of Beirut.

Lebanon's health ministry has said an Israeli strike on a hotel in central Beirut killed at least four people, with Israel saying it had targeted commanders from Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

The story of modern Iran begins with a CIA coup in 1953 - and its lessons should haunt Donald Trump, writes Deputy Foreign Editor Edmund Heaphy.